Agents: Pixel2
by Stormhawk
Summary: Pixel the fairy has to hunt down the Crimson Knight
1. Default Chapter

Title: Pixel2 (It was going to have a more imaginative title but I'm used to calling it Pixel2)  
  
Author: Stormhawk  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Disclaimer: Matrix universe and associated characters: Wachowski brothers. Agents universe: co-owned by me and Mordax. Stef, Hummer, Nat, Vorateu: me Crimson Knight: Mordax Stormy...um...I'll allow you to guess Pixel belongs to herself. NK: NK  
  
Word Count: 14668  
  
Summary: Pixel gets transferred to work for Perse. Brown goes to LA to hunt down an exile and Pix is sent to kill the same exile.  
  
Notes: I AM SO SORRY that this took so long, I think it was mainly due to the fact that I had writer's block for like three weeks. Mordax gets credit for coming up with the Crimson Knight and the idea of Brown going to LA to deal with a superhero.  
  
Not betaed, will remedy that soon.  
  
Please read and Review.  
  
Two months ago.  
  
Pixel and Two woke up in each other's arms, Two looked down and kissed her forehead. "Good morning beautiful," he said with a smile.  
  
"Morning?" she asked with a yawn, "is it morning already?"  
  
"Well either that or the moon is really bright."  
  
"I guess. I don't feel like getting up though, do you?"  
  
"Not really but I think the boss will want to know what happened last night."  
  
"I suppose."  
  
They both started when One's head phased through the petition, seeing them in a not all together compromising position he shifted all the way though.  
  
Pixel through a boot at his head, "don't you know how to knock?" she whined as he dodged it. "You pervert!" she said playfully.  
  
"I'm not a pervert, but one is on his way up, I thought I would let you know. I'd say you have about two minutes before he gets up here."  
  
"Then get out so we can get dressed," Two ordered his brother out.  
  
The couple got dressed in record time and all three of them were sitting out on the couches by the time the Frenchman walked in. He looked down at them with a glare, "I am suspicious of anyone who looks that innocent."  
  
But before they could say anything his gaze turned to Pixel, "by the lack of bragging I assume you did not dispatch of my enemy last night."  
  
"I won't fail next time," she said even though she wasn't sure that she could keep the promise.  
  
"So basically until then I am paying you for nothing."  
  
The brothers shared a glance, "hey boss," Two said, "why don't you hire her full time?"  
  
He looked at her with new interest, "well what about it fairy? Would you like to work for me full time?"  
  
Pixel had to think about it for a grand total of two point three seconds before nodding, "I would like that very much...boss."  
  
"I do prefer to be called 'sir' or 'master'."  
  
"Yes boss."  
  
"And if you do manage somehow to kill him I will give you the agreed amount."  
  
"Yay!" One said, "Pix is going to be a millionaire! She can buy us lots of presents!"  
  
"Millionaire?" she asked looking at him. "But the bonus is only two hundred grand."  
  
Two looked up at the Merovingian, "you wouldn't be trying to cheat the fairy would you now boss?"  
  
"Fine, she shall get the same bounty as everyone else," he scowled and walked out of the room.  
  
"And how much is the real bonus?" Pixel asked the brothers.  
  
"Twenty million," One said smoothly and she flopped down onto the couch and sighed happily.  
  
"Twenty...million...dollars!" she squeaked. "I am definitely going to kill him."  
  
"Everyone has been trying for years Pixy," Two said. "You can only hope."  
  
Two months later.  
  
"That is it!" an annoyed French voice yelled. "I can't take you annoy more. You distract them too much."  
  
"But boss...it's not me, I promise. It's just the way I am."  
  
"I cannot have you around here anymore!"  
  
"Are you firing me?"  
  
"No, go work for Persephone."  
  
"You want me to work for your wife?"  
  
"I think you two will get along better. And you won't be in my way anymore, distracting my prized bodyguards." The Twins looked aghast but knew better than to say anything when their boss was in this mood.  
  
"Fine," Pixel said with a glare before walking away to find Perse.  
  
*****  
  
Perse walked down the backdoor hallway, having managed to ditch her guards once again. She stopped walking when she felt a presence. She stopped and searched out with her mind for a moment, she was a clairvoyant but mostly people forgot that fact. She didn't mind, it allowed her to have an advantage on them. She felt the mind of the other in the hall. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized who it was, "you," the word escaped from her.  
  
"Still got your clairvoyant powers haven't you? He couldn't program that out of you," the vampire said from behind his cloak.  
  
She shook her head, "are you going to show yourself?"  
  
"Of course," the accented voice said as Vorateu opened his cloak and became visible. He smiled at her. "It's been a long time Perse." She smiled and nodded.  
  
"Do you miss me?" the vampire asked as he walked closer.  
  
"I..." then she faltered. She looked up into his eyes and felt herself become lost in them. Then she closed her eyes for a moment, "your powers don't work on me Vorateu."  
  
"Are you sure?" he asked, he was now right in front of her with his left hand on her face. "They always did before."  
  
She leant into the touch; "I'm not part of your world anymore."  
  
Vorateu shook his head, "you alvays have been, you alvays vill be," he whispered before kissing her. She didn't break away but let him lead it. He broke away a moment later, "did you miss me?"  
  
"Yes," she said as if admitting a betrayal. "But I am not of your world anymore."  
  
"He may have changed you so that you aren't a vampire anymore, but he can't change vhere you are from."  
  
"The first world, the one that doesn't exist anymore. Like us, it is something that isn't there anymore. We cannot change what has happened," she said in a whisper and turned away from him.  
  
"I vant to argue both of those points. Let me take you home."  
  
"Go where Vorateu? It's not there anymore, we lost our dream world when it was destroyed and this place was brought online." The vampire shook his head, and pulled something from within the folds of his cloak. A gold key.  
  
"What is that?"  
  
"Can't you guess?" he asked as he handed it to her. "Before you vere changed, didn't you hear the rumor?"  
  
"Which one?"  
  
"That it vasn't totally deleted, that some part of our vorld still existed?"  
  
"It was a rumor."  
  
He reached down and took her hand in his, entwining their fingers, he smiled. "Come vith me and I vill show you that it vas not a rumor."  
  
"I'm not sure I believe you."  
  
"You have always trusted me, vhy is this time so different?"  
  
"It was so long ago Vorateu, I don't trust many these days."  
  
"Do you think I could ever lie to you?" he asked in a hurt tone.  
  
"Well...how do we get there?" she whispered, hoping that this was real.  
  
"My smart lady, you vere always careful in choosing whom to trust." He led her down the hall to a short corridor with one door on the end. She looked up at him in anticipation and fear. Reaching out with her mind, she found his, free of lies of deceits. He was telling the truth.  
  
"That program who thinks he is some kind of reaper has had it locked avay in his cupboard for the last two centuries. Now I have finally gotten it back." He pulled it from a velvet pocket and handed it to her.  
  
She stared at the strange key, "this will take us home?"  
  
He nodded, "to the small part that is left. And in there we are not the monsters that we seem to be in this vorld."  
  
She closed her eyes and looked away from him, "I didn't have a choice, I didn't want to be a monster any longer, I couldn't take it."  
  
"You vere never a monster to me," he said softly.  
  
"But I felt like one," she whispered angrily, "killing just so that I could live. I could not live like that even if you don't seem to have a problem with it." She closed her eyes, she had never admitted this to anyone before.  
  
"Do you vant to see what I have to show you?"  
  
"More than anything," she admitted to him and to herself.  
  
"Then come and I shall show you," he took her hand and led her down a short hallway with only one door at the end. He pressed the gold key into the lock and twisted it. There was the sound of a very old lock being undone and he pushed the door open. Persephone gasped at what she saw. She closed her eyes, hoping this wasn't a dream.  
  
He pushed her in and closed the door behind them. They walked into the last remaining piece of the old world. She turned and saw that the door they had come through was in the middle of a field. Standing without supports, just an old wooden door carved with marvelous designs.  
  
"You weren't lying," she whispered as she turned back to him, "we're home."  
  
"Yes," the golden haired man standing beside her said, "ve are." She took a step back and looked at him, he no longer had the pasty appearance of a vampire. He looked entirely different; he was as she remembered him from this world. His gray eyes danced in his youthful face.  
  
"What's going on?" she dared almost not ask the question, but it was an answer she needed.  
  
"Vhen ve are in here, ve are as we once vere. Ve are not the monsters ve are out there, ve are just ourselves."  
  
"How?"  
  
"This place isn't really connected to the Matrix, this is a backroom. This place should have been broken down like the rest of our vorld but it vasn't. Here, our programming is still compatible and ve can just be us. Unlike out there."  
  
She knew what his tone of voice was asking her. "I can't stay Vorateu."  
  
"Vhy?"  
  
"You know why. Please, I must..."  
  
"Go?" he asked as he took her hand and led her down the hill. "Don't go yet." She gasped as she saw what he wanted to show her.  
  
"Is this real?" she asked as she looked at the sun setting over the lake. This had been her favorite place in the old world.  
  
"It's as real as I am," he whispered as he kissed her. 


	2. Chap 2

Pixel walked into Perse's library the next morning and found the other woman smiling to herself as she read from a leather-bound book.  
  
"Mistress?" Pixel said to get her attention. She didn't want to call her 'boss' like Mero and she didn't know her well enough to call her Persephone just yet. Although she had been living in the chateaux for these months she basically knew nothing about her boss's wife. She was somewhat of an enigma to everyone there.  
  
"What do you want?" Perse asked as she snapped the book shut after putting a bookmark in.  
  
"I tried to find you yesterday but you were out," she started. "Your husband has transferred me to be your bodyguard."  
  
"How wonderful I suppose I am stuck with you," she said sardonically. "And I was looking forward to going shopping by myself today."  
  
Pixel's eyes lit up at the mention of shopping. "Persephone, I think we are going to get on very well."  
  
"We shall see," the older program said as she picked up her purse. "I take it that you like shopping."  
  
"Well yes, and this full-time job is very full-time. I haven't had much time for shopping lately."  
  
"Well I'm sorry to disappoint you but you can't have free time to look around for yourself today. You are to look out for agents and such, this is not a day off."  
  
Pixel frowned, she couldn't see a good reason why she couldn't do both. Maybe Persephone was as cold as everyone else said.  
  
"I'm ready to leave now," she said as she pulled her key from her small white purse.  
  
"Yes mistress," Pixel had imagined that working for her boss's wife would be easier than working for the perverted and arrogant Merovingian.  
  
Perse pushed her key into the library door and opened it up. When Pixel walked through they weren't in the hallway but rather in the back of a shop. A moment later a small round man with a cheerful expression on his face walked through and bowed to Persephone.  
  
"How are you my lady?" he asked respectfully. Perse sighed and indicated to Pixel with her eyes. "Well what can I help you with?"  
  
"I'd like two new dresses," Perse said. "Have you got anything in mind?"  
  
The man smiled, "I may have an idea or two, if you'll follow me."  
  
Perse turned back to Pixel, "just go wait out the front, it shouldn't take more than two hours."  
  
The man showed her out to the front of the store and pointed to a pile of magazines, "that's where the guards usually sit."  
  
"So you're the guy who designs all of her dresses?"  
  
"Yes, as beautiful as they are, she wears them more like costumes."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"You must be a new one," she nodded, "she lives within this world governed by power, so she hides behind this image of perfection." He cast his eyes toward the other room. "I have to go now, don't tell her that I said anything."  
  
Two and a half hours later, when Pixel was considering impaling herself on her own sword in boredom Persephone walked out. "I'm done."  
  
"Where next mistress?"  
  
"I'm believe that I'm hungry, we shall go to Le Vrai."  
  
Pixel sat off on one of the guard's side tables and waited for her order to arrive as Persephone sat all by herself at the huge main table. Pix couldn't understand why she was like this; she had had the best of intentions to at least to be her friend but that had blown up in her face.  
  
If she hated her life so much then why didn't she just get a divorce and get free of Mero's world? Yet another question without an answer. She looked up and saw the waiter bringing her mouth-watering frappe when her cell phone rang.  
  
She winced, hoping that it wasn't someone that was going to pull her away from her frappe, she hadn't had anything to eat or drink today besides a bottle of coke.  
  
"Yes?" she said as she put her phone to her ear.  
  
"I need to see you in my office, now," Mero's French voice commanded in her ear.  
  
"Yes boss," she said dutifully and put it back in her pocket. She sighed and walked away from the frappe and walked up to Persephone. "Your husband has requested to see me."  
  
"And?"  
  
"May I go?"  
  
"You mean you're actually asking? I never wanted you around me in the first place."  
  
"Yes mistress," she said with a carefully schooled expression and left for the nearest door, which was in the back of the kitchen.  
  
As Pixel walked through the kitchen of La Vrai she looked up at the television that was there to allow the cooks to catch up on the day's events if they were working late.  
  
None of them paid attention to her as she watched a news report on a superhero in Los Angeles, the story being so interesting that it had traveled across the country in next to no time.  
  
It showed a brief clip of a person in a red uniform fighting evil as it were by projecting plasma blasts from his/her/its hands. Pixel shrugged and walked through to the chateaux.  
  
"Yeah boss?" Pixel asked as she strode into Mero's office. Thankfully, this time her boss wasn't 'busy' with another of his employees.  
  
"I've got a job for you."  
  
"Do tell," Pix said as she sat down in the chair opposite him and swung her feet up onto the expensive desk.  
  
"Take you feet off or I'll fire you this instant."  
  
"Fine," she muttered and placed them on the ground. "What is it that you want me to do?"  
  
"Kill someone."  
  
"Anyone in particular or do you just want me to walk down the street killing random people?"  
  
"The sad thing is, I know you would do that. But in this case I have someone in mind."  
  
"Damn, my idea sounds like fun."  
  
"Well do it on your own time. I need you to go to Los Angeles and kill the exile known as the Crimson Knight."  
  
"I saw that guy on the news about five minutes ago."  
  
"I think the Knight will be harder to catch and kill than she looks. She is a formidable target. She had killed three of my contractors already."  
  
"She? Well the media needs to keep more up to date. Why is it so important that I deal with her?"  
  
"I have reason to believe that this Knight wishes to reveal the nature of this world to the general populous. Something, that as you might have already guessed would be disastrous for us. Truly irreparable. We would not be able to hide anymore."  
  
"I understand," Pixel said with a grin, anticipating the hunt. "When I do I leave?"  
  
"Well if you're not doing anything important now then I would suggest that you leave straight away."  
  
"Yes boss," Pixel said, stood and walked to her room.  
  
She knew that she didn't really need to pack and stay over in LA but she decided that if she was going to catch the Knight then she would need to stay there to be able to get to the scene faster than what she could if she were on the other side of the country.  
  
She got a bag from her cupboard and packed some 'real' sized clothes as well as some smaller clothes for she didn't know how long she was going to be gone. She looked at all the things in her bag and decided that she had enough. Now all she had to do was say goodbye to Two.  
  
She walked all around the chateaux but couldn't find him so she called his cell phone. He was on a job for Mero with his brother so he wasn't able to see her off so she just said a goodbye.  
  
She put her phone away and pulled out her key. She pushed it into the nearest lock and walked into the backdoor hallway. She exited through a door that took her out into an alley of LA.  
  
She walked around until she found a lavish five-star hotel that was extremely expensive. The perfect kind of place and she had plenty of money in her bank account. But as she was walking up to the check-in counter she realized that she couldn't give her name as 'Pixel the exile fairy' so she had to think.  
  
"How can I help you?" the man asked her.  
  
"I'd like to check in please."  
  
"Name?"  
  
"Lauren Peairy," she spelt out the amalgamated name for him. It was a nice composite and sounded as if it could be a real name. As for the name Lauren, she just liked it.  
  
"What kind of room do you want? We have a range of prices and sizes..."  
  
"I want the best room in this hotel and the price isn't a problem," she said. All the money she had earned, sans a bit that had been spent on shopping had been accumulating in her bank account.  
  
"Yes ma'am," he said with a respectful nod. "Room 3001, one of our penthouses. I hope it is to your liking." He waved a bellhop over who took her bag and led her up to her room.  
  
She tipped him and he left before she started to explore the suite. After relaxing for an hour she went to her balcony and looked around at the cityscape. She decided, that this being LA, a six-foot fairy wasn't going to be anything strange to them.  
  
Stepping lightly up onto the rail she grew her wings and flew down to the ground, into a relatively empty street near the hotel as to not attract too much attention, or attention from the wrong kind of program.  
  
She had to find some other exiles to talk to or otherwise she was never going to find the Knight.  
  
"Stuff this," she said and went back into the backdoors. She continued straight back to Mero's office.  
  
"The Knight is dead already?" Mero asked incredulously.  
  
"I'm good but not that good. I need some of your west coast contacts so I have a better chance of catching her."  
  
"Fine," he said and flicked her up a card from his drawer. "She should be able to help you catch the Knight." Pixel nodded and went into the hall once more and exited through a door near to the address on the card.  
  
Pix exited through the door and up six flights of stairs to a loft apartment overlooking the ocean. She knocked on the door. A moment later it opened and she found herself looking at a short girl with long brown hair and a hawk sitting on her shoulder.  
  
"Can I help you?" she asked.  
  
"I'm looking for the Crimson Knight," Pixel said simply.  
  
"Then come on in," the girl said and stepped aside to allow the fairy in. Pixel looked around at the decor. There were movie and band posters all over the walls, a big screen TV and slim DVD player as well as a display of swords and a fair share of guns.  
  
"You from Mero or freelancing for someone else?"  
  
"Mero of course, he pays the best."  
  
"I know that to be true. So how have you been?"  
  
"Huh?" a genuine look of surprise washed over Pixel. "Do I know you or something?"  
  
"Yeah...we only spent a month taking care of that CAH sect of vampires. Don't you remember?"  
  
"No, I have memory trouble."  
  
"Well that was about five years ago. You got angry cause I killed more than you and Mr. French was paying by the head. But you did get the next three contracts from Toland so I guess it evened out."  
  
"Literal heads?"  
  
"Not that time. Vials of CAH vamp dust."  
  
"You a freelancer?"  
  
"Isn't everyone these days?"  
  
"I was until Mero gave me a full-time job. So why aren't you dealing with the Knight?"  
  
"I just came off a job. I was tracking a werewolf for two weeks. He stole from Mero so I got paid twenty grand to deal with him."  
  
"What can you tell me?"  
  
"That the Knight is going to try and crash a charity function. With that much media around something will get out."  
  
"How do you know this?"  
  
"Whispers in the underground. You can hear just about anything you want when you have a sharp pair of ears to help you." She rubbed her head against her hawk and it jumped down onto the table and chewed on a hunk of meat that was on a small green plate."  
  
"Tattoo?"  
  
"What else?"  
  
"My wings are a tattoo," Pixel said as she turned and let them grow out to their full size. She gave them a couple of flaps to show off.  
  
"Wicked," the other girl commented.  
  
"I don't know that many tattoos," Pixel said. "What's it like to have an animal as your tattoo? Are you two separate beings or what?"  
  
"It's a kind of symbiotic relationship I suppose. My hawk comes out when I need to fight or when I'm not in public - cause most humans don't carry red- tails around on their shoulders. Also when I'm here I don't keep her cooped up. She has a mind of her own but senses what i need to do so we work in sync. I can control her if I want but I generally choose not to. Also I can see through her eyes and hear through her ears. It's rather cool actually."  
  
"I can imagine."  
  
"She also picks up on feelings from me so she's strangely like a extended part of my personality."  
  
"Do you know what function the Knight is going to crash?"  
  
"If I know that I'd make myself an easy twenty grand. The Knight may be hard to produce plasma shots but I think that if you get around that offense that she wouldn't have much defense."  
  
"Strong in one area, weak in another..." Pixel muttered.  
  
"Yeah...ever dropped a fire elemental into the Pacific? Weak as hell if you know their Achilles' heel."  
  
"Being a fire exile, it would be water obviously."  
  
"That's fire and water. Only salt water works on an elemental. Or otherwise they can rekindle themselves."  
  
"That's something to remember."  
  
"Do, cause I don't usually hand out free advice."  
  
"Thanks for your help."  
  
"Just keep your eyes open for the agents. But at least you only have to worry about two in the main LA agency."  
  
"Two? Isn't it standard to have three?"  
  
"There used to be three but then an exile went and killed one of them didn't she?"  
  
"Who? How?"  
  
"Me. There's a section of firewalls around here that they can't get out of. Me and my hawk took care of him."  
  
"I never heard about that."  
  
"Mero told me to shut up about it. It's something to celebrate but not advertise."  
  
"Why not? This is great, I'd love to kill an agent too."  
  
"Haven't you heard that some agents have exile contacts? Traitors who are swapping secrets for immunity?"  
  
"No, it could just be a rumor."  
  
"All I know is that I got fifty grand for doing the exile world a favor and keeping my mouth shut about it."  
  
"So why tell me?"  
  
"Do I look like a good little girl that does as she's told?"  
  
Pixel looked at the exile who was wearing black pants, a black Chinese- styled top with red loops and a handgun in a holder on her hip. "No."  
  
"Smart answer."  
  
"Thanks," Pixel said as she walked out of the apartment.  
  
Ok, now all she needed to do was find out what charity functions were on in the next couple of weeks and watch them and find which one was the Knight's target.  
  
The Knight was either very stupid or very brave, she was attempting to do something that would destroy the exile's way of life and make life none too easy for the agents as well. Not that she cared about the agents but they were all a part of a world that was separate to the humans. 


	3. Chapter 3

Brown reviewed the footage for a third time. It was a clip from the human news, the latest in a series of four. Each of the pieces showed a scene where a figure heavily cloaked in red and of indeterminate gender, was either accosting or had recently accosted criminals in unlawful and generally violent acts. The first time the figure had appeared he (or she) had stopped a bank robbery in progress, defeating ten armed men in ski masks.  
  
The second time he appeared he successfully deterred a museum heist, and a week later broken up a drug smuggling ring that the police had been after for months. There were people claiming to have been rescued from muggings, and the internet was awash with rumors. The police were calling him a dangerous vigilante, popular consent called him a real super hero, and he had been universally dubbed by the media the Crimson Knight.  
  
But there were only two reasons that Brown took any interest in what would normally be a ridiculous human affair. One was this new footage, in which the criminals this so-called 'Knight' had beaten a group of rebels who had taken control of a radio station and were using it to broadcast their anti- matrix message. The agent who had been assigned to the task (as the vigilante operated over a thousand miles away) had gotten there after the 'Crimson Knight' had already finished the job. Brown was indignant that any agent would be so incompetent as to be shown up by some rogue, be it program or human.  
  
That incident, however, could possibly have been an isolated incident. This Crimson Knight might not necessarily know anything about the matrix. That however was not the only reason Brown was wasting his precious time on the mystery figure. The other reason was that the vigilante displayed superhuman abilities. He showed signs of paranormal speed and strength, and was able to create a sort of plasma blast projected from the palms of his hands.  
  
Brown was convinced that he was dealing with an exile, though when he had run a search through the mainframe, the Knight's profile had not matched that of any previously know exile. Exiles as a group also tended to attempt to keep a low profile in order to avoid being destroyed, a habit which was both moderately successful, and infuriating. If an exile had chosen to abandon safety in anonymity for notoriety, Brown would take full advantage of that.  
  
So Brown had decided to take over the investigation personally. He stood from his desk and shifted outside Smith's office. Since it was a mission some distance away, and Brown was unsure of the duration it would take to accomplish, it was his duty to inform the command agent. He knocked on the door.  
  
"Come in," came Smith's voice.  
  
Brown opened the door to find that Smith was not alone. Mimosa was in his office, which was hardly unusual.  
  
"Agent Brown," Smith said.  
  
Mimosa nodded to him in acknowledgement, but Brown ignored her presence.  
  
"I am going to the Los Angeles agency to investigate a possible exile."  
  
"Very well."  
  
"I am unaware as to the length of my investigation."  
  
"That is fine agent Brown, you may proceed."  
  
Brown nodded and shifted away.  
  
Mimosa immediately broke into a grin. "Alright! Brown's gone!" she cheered, "Time to party!!"  
  
Smith looked at her dubiously.  
  
She held up her hands. "Kidding," she said, still grinning.  
  
The command agent smirked.  
  
***  
  
Brown shifted to the Los Angeles agency and stood, giving his programming a moment to adjust to the three-hour time difference.  
  
He walked through the echoing halls of the LA agency. Every agency in the world had the same layout, though with different touches, such as the languages on the doors, or country-specific signage.  
  
He knocked on the door of the LA command unit. "Come in," the voice said, he opened the door and walked in. The LA command unit appeared to be a bit younger than he, humans would estimate the west coast agent to be in his late twenties or early thirties. His hair was much fairer than his, programmed to give the impression of someone who spent a lot of time in the sun.  
  
Other than that, he was just an agent.  
  
"I'm Agent Taylor," he said, "what can I do to help you?"  
  
"Agent Brown, from New York. I'm here to offer assistance regarding the exile that the human media has dubbed the 'Crimson Knight'."  
  
"Yes, this 'Knight' is giving us a great deal of trouble. Our own combat agent, Agent Shore, has been attempting to track it, but has had little success."  
  
"I know, that's why I've come to assist."  
  
"You think you can catch the Knight?"  
  
"Agent Taylor, I excel at destroying exiles."  
  
"Then we welcome your help. There is an office on level five that is free. You may use it if you like."  
  
"Yes, I will need somewhere to work from."  
  
The command agent held out his hand and a standard folder appeared in it. "This is every observation that Agent Shore has made."  
  
He accepted the file and shifted away. He shifted to the spare office on level five and locked the door. It was almost exactly like his office, absolutely plain with no personal touches whatsoever.  
  
He looked out the window, this was the only noticeable difference, as it showed him a different cityscape.  
  
It was time to start his hunt.  
  
*****  
  
It wasn't until a couple of days later that Pixel finally had a list of all the charity events that were occurring in the area. The one that was on that night was most likely the one that was going to draw the Knight's attention as it was the largest one on in the near future.  
  
Staking out the event from a safe distance into the shadows she had with her both her knife and sword. She stayed away from all the cameras and media so her face didn't accidentally get recorded.  
  
After waiting for a long time she began to think that the Knight wasn't coming, but before she could leave she saw her. It was nothing more than an androgynous shadow leaping from rooftop to rooftop toward the large, brightly-lit building.  
  
Pixel grew her wings and flew up to intercept the Knight before she could ruin what it was that the exiles had.  
  
She slammed straight into the Knight and the red-clad figure hit the rooftop. Pixel whipped out her sword and tried to cleave the Knight's head from her body. The Knight nimbly dodged the attack and directed a stream of plasma at the fairy.  
  
Pixel jumped and shrunk down so that it would be harder for the Knight to incinerate her. "Why are you doing this?" the Barbie-sized fairy screamed at the Knight. "Why are you trying to ruin our world?"  
  
"It's their world too!" The Knight said with a laugh as she peeled off her mask. She had red-tinged skin and black eyes, her hair was white and closely shaven. "They deserve the truth!"  
  
"You sound like a rebel but even they have the brains to know that not all of them handle it!"  
  
"Then the world will be better once they're gone. This world will be filled with people who know and accept the truth."  
  
"Is that why you've been helping them? To make them think that we're all superheroes and good guys?"  
  
"A good first impression is always a good thing."  
  
"So what happens when they find out about all the vamps and wolves that just want to have them for lunch?"  
  
"They'll just have to learn to accept them."  
  
"Who are you to make that choice for them?"  
  
"I am the Crimson Knight!" she crowed to the night.  
  
"Not for much longer," Pixel said as she resumed her normal size. "Soon you'll just be crimson."  
  
"I'm not scared of you."  
  
"You should be." Pixel promised darkly.  
  
The Knight grinned and jumped off the building, landing nimbly on the ground and running from the dangerous fairy.  
  
She ran into a building...and then straight into Agent Brown.  
  
***  
  
"Time for this to finish," he said with a sick smile. "You've led me on quite a hunt."  
  
"Who the hell are you?"  
  
"Brown."  
  
"That is so incredibly boring."  
  
Ignoring her, he whipped out his gun and started to fire at her. She dodged all of the shots and ran back out. She'd have to find another benefit to crash, it seemed that no one would be getting her message tonight.  
  
She saw an open door and ran in. There was a thud behind her and she turned and saw Pixel land in the doorway, her sword at the ready.  
  
The Knight didn't have a chance to react as she ran forward.  
  
Pixel whipped her sword around and cleaved the Crimson Knight in two, doing what she needed to do to protect her kind. She felt no more remorse than when she had killed an enemy.  
  
The body fell with a wet splat to the ground and she didn't even give it a second look as she turned to find something to wipe the blood from her sword with.  
  
***  
  
Brown had been so close to his enemy but she had given him nothing more than a temporary slip, he ran through the door to where he had seen her go and had come across the strangest of sights.  
  
An exile, killing another exile. That wasn't something he had ever seen before.  
  
Well, at least she had taken care of the so-called Knight, but that still left one exile to be dealt with.  
  
She turned and the moonlight shined off her sword and refracted off the Knight's blood. It had been a swift and efficient stroke, much like what he would do if he believed in using archaic blades.  
  
***  
  
Pixel turned away from the Knight and saw the imposing figure in the suit looming in the doorway.  
  
"Shit..." she said and prepared herself for another fight.  
  
She held her sword at the ready but before she could run at him with in angry and suicidal charge he disappeared. Maybe she had scared him off - well that would be something to brag about in the chateaux.  
  
Then suddenly she heard a noise and looked out the window, she caught the fleeting image of a young man running away. She couldn't see much in the dark, just the impression of someone with longish black hair and wearing a long coat running from the building.  
  
But then she realized just how wrong she had been.  
  
The agent wasn't gone.  
  
He came at her from behind and grabbed her wrists, making her drop her sword and pulled them up behind her back so that she couldn't move.  
  
"Why did you kill that exile?" he asked in a hiss.  
  
"Why do you care?" she retorted as she tried to free herself of his grip but he just held her tighter and the circulation to her hands was cut off.  
  
"Answer my question and I'll make your death less painful than what I had planned for that knight."  
  
"I am not going to tell you anything!" she screamed and with a sudden burst of power she flipped him over her, he landed with a thud on the ground, she grabbed her sword and thrust it into his chest.  
  
Green electricity crawled over his body and he was replaced by an old man wearing newspapers and raggy clothes. She ran for her life, pulling out her key and escaping through the nearest door.  
  
Once inside she collapsed and breathed a sigh of relief, at least she had escaped him. That was something to be thankful for. She rubbed at her wrists, thankful that he hadn't broken any of her bones and had been too busy attempting to question her to kill her straight away.  
  
She sheathed her sword and decided to clean it once she got home. She walked down the hall and opened the door to the chateaux.  
  
Since she was working for Mero full time now, she had her own apartment at the chateaux, she walked up the grand stairs to the third floor. It was a level up from the twin's room but it was big, flashy, and now it had the feeling of home. 


	4. Chapter 4

Life went back to normal the next week, she kept close tabs on Persephone who would disappear sometimes, despite her best efforts to follow Mero's orders. They were walking to a door after another of her mistress's shopping trips when she saw Perse stop dead just ahead of her.  
  
"Run Perse!" Pixel screamed as she saw the suit turn the corner just ahead of them. Perse froze as she looked up at the man in the suit, never before had she been so close to one of them. At least one of them who had the intention of killing her.  
  
The man drew his gun and she was paralyzed with fear.  
  
Pixel pulled out her sword and flew toward them as fast as she could. She pushed her feet out in front of her and slammed them into his chest, knocking him to the ground.  
  
Perse took her chance and ran for the nearest door as quickly as she could considering what she was wearing and the fact that she had high heels on.  
  
Pixel looked down at the agent and jumped with surprise. It was the same agent from LA. He kicked her off and she landed with a hard thud on the ground but immediately got to her feet again.  
  
The agent had his gun drawn but seemed reluctant to fire. There was something he wanted.  
  
"Why are you following me?"  
  
"I am not following you!" she screamed as she dove for her sword but he grabbed at her. He held her forearm tightly and she was sure a bruise was already forming.  
  
She delivered a punch to his chest but it didn't even make him flinch. "Answer. My. Question," he repeated. "I don't think I need to tell you what happens if you don't."  
  
"You'll do the same thing to me that you're going to do anyway. That is all you agents do. Kill. Kill. Kill. Well if you're going to kill me then kill me! I'd rather that than this attempt at a conversation or whatever it is!" She screamed at him.  
  
He stared at her from behind his glasses, the gaze making her go silent for she knew that's exactly what he was going to do. That's all agents did, it wasn't like they had feelings or anything. Just brutal killing programs.  
  
And this one was like a brick wall in a suit. Unmoving. Unfeeling. Cold.  
  
"If you don't answer my question I promise to prolong your suffering as long as digitally possible until you do. You know that isn't an empty threat so why are you resisting me? You know that resisting the system only causes death. Resistance causes pain."  
  
"Yeah, and what exactly would you know about it? You don't feel!"  
  
"I know what I need to know to destroy people like you." He said in the same seething voice. The singular, hate-filled tone.  
  
"Do you feel anything?" she asked as she struggled to get her arm free. "Or are you as unfeeling as they say? You stupid underdeveloped program!"  
  
"No one has ever insulted me and lived to tell about it."  
  
"But you weren't going to let me live anyway!" she shouted at him.  
  
"Good point," he said as he pushed his gun to her temple.  
  
"So you feel nothing? Just a numb existence. Don't you even feel pain?"  
  
The fact that he hadn't pulled the trigger told her that she had touched on a nerve. "What do you feel right now?"  
  
"Hate," he said.  
  
"Hate is an emotion. So you do feel." With that, he flung her across the alley and into the opposite wall.  
  
"I hate exiles. I hate rebels. I want nothing more than to choke the life from every single one of them," he said as he advanced on her.  
  
She dove past him, rolled and picked up her sword. She stood and held it toward him. "Let's see how much pain you can feel." She smiled wickedly, "let's see if you can bleed."  
  
He took another step closer, and her sword was touching the fabric of his suit. She stared unblinkingly at him, not wanting to him to detect any fear.  
  
He moved a little closer and the sword pierced the fabric of his suit. He leant as close as he could to her without having the sword cut into his skin and he reached up to his ear and pulled out his earpiece.  
  
"I am going to let you live today." The statement almost made her drop her sword in surprise but sensing a trick she didn't let her guard down for a single second. "But," he continued, "only because I found this interesting."  
  
He stepped back and studied her for a moment, "don't expect the same next time we meet Pixel." The he put his earpiece back in and shifted away.  
  
It took all of her strength not to hyperventilate as she sheathed her sword and ran through the nearest backdoor. As she walked through she ran into an albino.  
  
Straight away she wrapped her arms around him and felt him pull her close. "Are you ok?" she heard One ask. She was hugging the wrong twin.  
  
"Sorry," she mumbled but didn't let him go. She didn't care which one it was, she was just thankful that her twinsies were there for her. The brothers were the best thing that had happened to her...ever...that she could remember. But since she had no recollection past a couple of months ago they could have been just one of a number of good things that had happened to her.  
  
But they were what she knew at the moment, and they always made her feel safe and at home.  
  
"Um...brother?" Two asked. "If I may?" One phased and his brother walked through and assumed the same position. She looked up at him and smiled.  
  
"I'm so glad you're both here. You wouldn't believe what just happened to me."  
  
"An agent, mistress told us, that's why we were coming to help. How'd you get away?" One said.  
  
She thought back to the rather odd agent. What had been said wasn't exactly something she felt like sharing at the moment.  
  
"I just did, by the very skin of my wings. Can we just go home? I want to sit down for a while."  
  
They nodded and opened the door to the chateaux up and she left them to go to her room. She looked around her room as she walked in. Now that she was working full time Mero had written her a room of her own. There had only been a set number of rooms in the original chateaux so now whenever they needed more room Mero would simply alter the code and write in another room.  
  
There were twenty foot high ceilings throughout. Her bedroom was behind a petition, whose doors were on a track only eight feet up so that she could do aerial acrobatics when she chose to.  
  
The rooms were a mismatch, some of them were painted, while others were mosaic and other still were polished wood.  
  
She was sitting on a huge two-person beanbag that she had instead of a couch in her living room. She had retrieved her makeup bag from her bedroom and was now giving herself a manicure and pedicure with a calming peach nail polish.  
  
After the fight with the agent she needed a nice calming color to settle her nerves. But having no memory, she may have taken on many agents in the past or may have been lucky enough to have always avoided them.  
  
She picked the stereo remote up off the table near her and pressed play on the CD, Mudvayne blasted from the surround speakers giving her a cozy atmosphere of hard rock.  
  
After she was finished painting her nails she allowed her wings free and after giving them an experimental shake she lifted herself up into the air to dry her fingers and toes off while getting in a little air time.  
  
But about five minutes later she was interrupted by the twins phasing through the locked door. They looked up at her as she flew around not noticing that they were there until she flew down to change the CD and she saw them leaning against the wall staring at her.  
  
"How long have you guys been there?" she asked as she landed.  
  
"Long enough," they replied in unison.  
  
"But my door was locked, how did you get in?" they both gave her a look and she remembered, and she grinned, "right...forgot for a second there. What are you up to."  
  
"Frankly my dear, we're bored," Two said. "Have you got any bright ideas?"  
  
"Well I can turn the gravity off in this room if you like and we can bounce off the walls."  
  
"Not exactly what I had in mind," One said.  
  
"Then I want a frappe!" Pixel said.  
  
"A...what?" they both said at the same time, not having one clue about what she was on about.  
  
"I'll show you," she said letting go of Two and walking a little way down the hall.  
  
"Where are we going?" One asked.  
  
"McDonald's," she said as she walked through the door closest to the McDonald's that Hummer worked at. The boys pushed the doors open for her and she eyed the whole place with the look of a predator on the prowl.  
  
She walked up to the counter of the McCafe. "Hello?" she said to the clerk with his head in the fridge.  
  
"Ow!" he yelped as he hit his head on the top of the fridge. A blond head appeared.  
  
"Pixy!" Hummer said. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I need a frappe and I need it now. Gimme, gimme, gimme."  
  
"Didn't you have a good day?" he asked cautiously. "Or are you just looking for a sugar rush?"  
  
"Oreo...make it double Oreo...frappe now as quickly as you can possibly do it." She looked at the boys, "make it three."  
  
"Okies, coming right up. You can sit and I'll bring them out to you. You can go sit with Nat if you want."  
  
"You bring Nat to work with you? Like all the time?"  
  
"Babysitters are too expensive, Charlie is busy a lot of the time and if I leave him in the house he'll trash it so he comes with me. He knows the playground back to front and never gets sick of happy meals cause there's always new toys to get."  
  
"And who's that sitting with him?"  
  
"Just kitty, you can go say hi."  
  
"Just ASAP that sugar." She gave him a sweet look, "please."  
  
"I can't refuse a fairy. Or her ghost friends."  
  
The threesome went and sat with Nat and his friend. Nat had his tongue poking out while he was concentrating on coloring a picture in a thick coloring book.  
  
"Hey," Stef said looking up and then going back to watching Nat. The child however bounced in his seat.  
  
"Clowns!" he squeaked. "There's those clowns again." He held up his pen, "want me to color you in? So you be colorful clowns?"  
  
"Um...no. Go back to your picture." One said.  
  
"Maybe another time," Two said.  
  
"You can color me if you like," said pixel, reaching her hand across the table for Nat to reach.  
  
"You got too many colors already." He said with a giggle. "Where are your wings Pixy?"  
  
"Can't show them here. Bad people in suits might get me."  
  
"Yeah, suits," Two said giving Stef a look. "How about we color the agent in?"  
  
"Try it and I'll give you to Brown on a silver platter."  
  
Pixel gave a weak cough, "um...Two, did you just say 'agent'?"  
  
"Sure he did."  
  
"Why?" she asked. "What? When? How? Somebody tell me what's going on right now."  
  
"She's new ain't she?" Stef asked the brothers.  
  
"Not, not new," One said. "Just new around these parts. And she doesn't get out much. Not her fault though."  
  
"Oi! I do so. And you haven't answered my questions yet."  
  
Stef required her suit back, sans of course her earpiece, "questions answered?"  
  
Pixel made several quiet incoherent sounds as Stef reassumed her civilian clothes. "More info please. And why isn't there a big fight going on right now?"  
  
"Don't worry I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a friend."  
  
"But you wear a suit...what is it with my luck today? Two suits in one day?" Pixel whined as Hummer carried the frappes over.  
  
"Did you just say two suits? As in me and who else?"  
  
"Like I know his name," she said as sipped her frappe. "All I know is that he is tall and he's a brick wall from LA. I ran into him just after I killed the Crimson Knight."  
  
"Was he after the Knight as well?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess so. He was after the Crimson Knight too? I killed her just before he showed up."  
  
"You killed the knight?" Stef asked incredulously.  
  
"Yeah, I killed the Crimson Knight then he showed up and tried to kill me. But I got away. Only cause I stabbed him then ran through a door."  
  
"I wish I could stab him and get away with it. Why'd Mero want the Knight dead anyway? Or does he just have a thing against superheroes?"  
  
Pixel barked a short laugh, "the knight was about to go on national TV and tell the world about the nature of reality. For the good of the...for everyone's sake she had to be put of her misery. And plus, I got a nice bonus for that. What about this Agent?"  
  
"I think you have had the unlucky pleasure to have run into Agent Brown, he's from the agency in this city. You're right about the brick wall thing and did you notice the giant stick up his," she covered Nat's ears, "his ass? Cause it's kind of hard to miss. You being an exile probably would have noticed it." She uncovered Nat's ears and Pix nodded.  
  
"Is he always like that?"  
  
"Only when he's in what passes for a good mood."  
  
"Great, and since he's here I might be unlucky enough to run into him again."  
  
"I'd count on it." 


	5. Chapter 5

"Purrr..." a voice said a figure sauntered into the darkened warehouse.  
  
"You're finally here," a voice said from the other side. The lights went up and illuminated the two figures. One was a thin man enveloped in a long dark coat, and the other was a tall woman, with a cat's tail and claws. She was wearing a black cat suit - no pun intended - and had a small backpack on her back.  
  
"Sorry, I had to scratch someone," she said with a pointed look as she walked over to him and lay on the table in front of him, her tail flicking in the air.  
  
"I saw her tonight."  
  
"Her? As in her? As in the one who want dead?"  
  
"The same," he said with a dark look.  
  
"Where?" the woman, whose name was NK, asked.  
  
"Here, just down the road. She was chasing that damned Knight for some reason or other."  
  
"So how come you didn't take care of her?" she asked, as she rested her head on her hands.  
  
"There was an agent in the area, I didn't want to take my chances. Besides, he might have done the job for me."  
  
"Did he? Well, you called me so I would guess not."  
  
"I checked the whole area, no fairy blood."  
  
"Darn...guess that means I'll have to do it. Have you got any clues to where she is now?"  
  
"New York, and working for the Merovingian."  
  
"You're kidding me."  
  
"Would I kid about something like that?"  
  
"How'd you find this out?"  
  
"Because she dropped this," he said pulling a slip of paper out of his pocket. It was a statement from an automatic teller. "Recognize the numbers?"  
  
"Well at least it's down to one city now," he smiled. "So what are you waiting for?"  
  
NK grinned, "Purr-fect Will, I'll have her dead by the end of the week."  
  
*****  
  
What am I doing? Brown asked himself as he kicked his punching bag. He had let an exile live! That was something he had never intended to do or ever wanted to do.  
  
He killed exiles, he was an agent, that was what he was supposed to do. And yet, for no good reason that he could find he had let that fairy live. It must be an error of some kind. There was something wrong with his coding that was making him act this way, for he was sure that he wouldn't do something like this out of free will.  
  
And unfortunately there was only one person he could see concerning something like that. Jones. Jones who had been the first to become less than perfect. Jones who had been an addict and been allowed to live.  
  
The corrupted agent had even gone so far as to change the color of his eyes. Something that still irritated Brown all these decades later.  
  
But, he had no choice, so he required the wrinkles from his suit and shifted to Jones' office. He opened the door and walked in, Jones jumped and turned around. Seeing it was Brown the small tech agent immediately put his sunglasses back on and required the light in his office to turn on.  
  
"What can I help you with Agent Brown?"  
  
"I need you to inspect my code. A self-diagnostic has revealed nothing and I believe that I am experiencing a code error."  
  
"Of course," Jones said and typed on his keyboard. A representation of Brown's code appeared on the screen and Jones diligently checked for every thing he could think of. The job wasn't made any easier for he could feel Brown staring at him, and he knew what Brown thought of him.  
  
Five minutes later he looked over to the taller agent, "I can find nothing wrong with you Agent Brown. Perhaps it was an error that has corrected itself."  
  
Without another word Brown walked out of the room.  
  
He went back to his stark office and looked around. He required the fairy's file and stared at it. There was no difference between her and the rest of the exiles. She was just another enemy to be destroyed.  
  
Only he hadn't.  
  
*****  
  
Pixel walked up the alley that took her straight through to the chateaux in the hall near her room, she froze as she went to reach for her key when someone spoke.  
  
"I knew you'd be back." She spun and saw Brown. She whipped out her sword in less time than he could blink.  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"What did you do to me?"  
  
"I have no idea what you are talking about. Why would I want to anything to you besides cut you four ways?"  
  
"Ever since I saw you the first time I have not been myself," he snarled. "I demand you undo this corruption that you did to me so that I can go back to how I was."  
  
"I didn't do anything."  
  
"You're lying!" he screamed and went to walk toward her.  
  
"Why would I even bother lying to you?"  
  
"I know your name Pixel, I know what powers you have, I know everything that's in your file but I know that's only scratching the surface. It always irritates me that we do not know all about the exiles as that makes them harder to destroy but in your case..."  
  
"What?" she demanded. "And why me?"  
  
"Only you know that! You're the one who corrupted me!"  
  
"For the last damn time, I did nothing like that!"  
  
"I don't believe you." He snarled, "I don't believe you."  
  
"Oh I'm sorry," NK said as she dropped down in front of them. "Am I interrupting a lover's tiff?"  
  
"Who the hell are you?" Pixel asked.  
  
"NK, I'm here to kill you."  
  
"What?" she shot a look at Brown, "is she here with you?"  
  
"Unlikely," the agent said stoically.  
  
"Be quiet," NK ordered Brown. Her tail, prehensile in nature, reached up into her small bag and pulled out a whip. It had several thick lashes, all of which had spiked endings, like knife blades.  
  
"Do you know the saying 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then how about we kill her and then get back to our lovely little talk?"  
  
Brown said nothing as NK flicked the whip, it hit him fully in the chest as Pixel changed size to avoid it. His hand flew to his chest instead of his gun, he was bleeding. It took him a second to think of reaching for his gun, but by then it was too late.  
  
With a feral screech, NK leapt and swung the whip again, lashing him in the same area, drawing more blood before she kicked him in the chest and landed on top of him. He tried to fight her off to no avail, she was too agile.  
  
He looked up and saw her face changing, become more tiger-like, he only just saw the fangs that grew in her mouth before she bit into him, tearing some flesh away and leaving his shirt in ruins.  
  
He tried to reach for his gun but her tail pulled it from his holster and threw it across the alley. She bit into him again and he went limp from pain.  
  
Pixel was frozen, the rational part of her brain was telling her to run for the nearest door, to get away from this crazy cat-woman who was apparently here to kill her.  
  
Could she leave the agent?  
  
Of course she could, it was too enemies fighting each other.  
  
But did she want to?  
  
She reached down and picked up the gun from the alley, which had landed fairly close to her. She took aim and squeezed off a shot.  
  
NK recoiled when she heard the noise. She looked up, her face covered in the agent's blood. She wiped it away with the back of her hand, which was closer to a paw at the moment and leapt at the fairy.  
  
Pixel grew her wings quickly and flew away, while NK chased her quickly on the ground. She flew into a dead end alley and turned to face her, this was the kind of controlled situation that she had wanted.  
  
NK came flying around at high speed, not expecting for the alley to end. Pixel was ready, and managed to cut a gash along the cat's side as she ran into the alley.  
  
"Oh," NK said in faked pain. "I think you cut me." She lashed out at Pix with her claws.  
  
Pixel shrank back from the cat and fired off another two rounds from the stolen gun. These two hit her fully in the chest, she fell down and this time she didn't get up. Pixel nodded and ran from the dead end alley.  
  
What she didn't see was a few minutes later the cat-woman shrank down into the form of a black and white cat, that didn't have any injuries, then back up to a woman, with minimal cat features that was clearly in pain. She limped through the nearest door.  
  
Pixel ran from NK and back to Brown. She didn't want to believe what she was doing. She was running toward an injured agent and she didn't intend to kill him, she was going to help him. An exile helping an agent, that was an unspeakable act. It was something that was against the nature of both sets of programs.  
  
The agent was only stirring now, the front of his suit was slick with blood, his sunglasses had fallen off sometime during the fight, revealing the blue eyes that all agents had.  
  
He tried to sit up, but he groaned and flopped back to the ground. "Are you alive?" Pixel asked as she leant down close to him.  
  
His arm shot up to strangle her but his hand didn't make it and it fell back down to his side, his other hand gingerly touching the blood on his suit. "I guess you can bleed," Pixel remarked.  
  
"Kill me and get it over with," he snarled at her.  
  
Pixel blushed an extraordinary shade of red, "I wasn't actually planning on killing you."  
  
He didn't see her blush, "I will not be taken apart by your boss. I'd rather self-terminate."  
  
"No, don't do that. I wouldn't give you to Mero."  
  
"Well I don't want to be given to Carlson either."  
  
Pixel looked confused, "who's Carlson?"  
  
He looked up at her without blinking, "then what were you planning on doing with me?"  
  
"I was..." Pixel paused, the words were hard for her to say. "I was going to help you."  
  
Brown barked a short humourless laugh, "and next you'll be telling me that all the exiles are willingly going to come forward to be dealt with."  
  
"Let's not go that far just yet," she said as she helped him up. He tried to pull away but since he was injured he wasn't strong enough. "So why didn't you just leave anyway? I mean, that's a perk of being an agent right? Agents don't die."  
  
"Well I can't shift out of here," Brown snapped, "there must be a firewall around this area."  
  
Pixel clamped her mouth shut before she blurted out that they were near Club Hel, that would have been quite possibly the stupidest thing she had ever done. She just shrugged and they walked into the nearest building.  
  
A bum had been living there but he wasn't to be seen at the moment, she leant him against the wall as if he were a plank of wood instead of just having the personality of one. She flipped over the dusty mattress and patted the rest of the dust out of in and then helped him to it. He resisted as much as he could, preferring to die than to accept the help of an exile.  
  
He was bleeding badly now from several large wounds on his chest, his white shirt was now red except for his collar which was just a little dirty from lying on the ground.  
  
She pushed his jacket off and undid his buttons. He tried to swat her hands away. "Do you want to live or not?" she asked before she undid the last button.  
  
"Not if it means help from you," he said in a bitingly cold voice.  
  
"Fine," Pixel said and she withdrew her wings into her back and walked out of the room. Brown managed to sit and he looked down at his chest. There was a huge amount of blood. The scratches were huge and since they were into code it would be fatal if he did not get assistance.  
  
But that help would not come from that fairy. He would not, under any circumstances, even those that pertained to the continuation of his own existence, accept help from an exile. He was an agent, exiles were his enemy. They were as worse, if not more so than the rebels. And this one was working for The Merovingian. The Merovingian had been a thorn in his side ever since they had become aware of him.  
  
He tried his earpiece again and again to no avail, and it didn't take long for him to realize that things were not going his way. It appeared that this was going to be his end, this was not how he had he had expected it to be. He had suspected that it would at the hands of an exile, maybe even Carlson himself. But he had thought it would be in battle, not lying in some human building.  
  
He steeled his expression and closed his eyes. He had done his job flawlessly as an agent. There were only three possible outcomes now. He would be found in time, he would simply end or he would go to the source to accept his deletion.  
  
His eyes snapped open a while later when he felt someone touch him. It was a touch without violence behind it, something he had not experienced before. He opened his eyes and saw the fairy. Pixel. The fairy. She gave him a small smile, "do you still want to lay here and die?"  
  
"You left," he said – purposely not giving her a real answer.  
  
"Yeah," she said with a shrug, "two hours ago. I've had lunch and you're still here bleeding. I'm guessing you're in the same trouble."  
  
He turned his head to the side and refused to look at her. Pixel shook her head at his arrogance and made up her mind. She undid the last button and pulled his shirt out of his pants and away so she could properly inspect his wounds.  
  
If he had not been bleeding to death she would have taken the time to admire his chest, he looked as though he worked out everyday, which he probably did but it may have also been because they programmed him that way.  
  
Well, there certainly were some positive elements to agents. She shook her head, that wasn't a good thought to have, when he got the chance he was going to kill her.  
  
Wasn't he?  
  
"You are in a bad way," she said. "So I'm going to help you."  
  
"You're an exile," he said unnecessarily.  
  
"And you're arrogant. Not even agents are invulnerable when it comes down to the bottom line."  
  
"I'm still going to kill you."  
  
"If that is what you choose to do. But I still want to help you."  
  
"You're corrupted."  
  
"Would you shut up?" she said and wondered what kind of a reaction that she would get.  
  
"I have never let someone live after a comment like that."  
  
"And yet, I seem to be still alive."  
  
"I don't have the strength," he muttered.  
  
Finally, she smiled, a breakthrough. "Are you asking for my help?" he still didn't give her an answer. "Well? Or should I just leave again?"  
  
"No," he said at last, "don't."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I..." he never wanted to say these words. Never ever, he was too strong for this. But if he didn't he would ever be strong enough to fight again. "I need help." He coughed. "I need your help."  
  
He expected her to laugh, even though she was the one offering the help. It was wrong for an agent to ask for help. It was traitorous to ask for help from an exile. And yet...he was asking for help.  
  
"Are you sure," the fairy asked with a smirk.  
  
"Yes," he said as if he were signing his own death warrant. He would have gladly accepted his demise but he wanted to continue to serve the mainframe. He would do anything to serve forever and perhaps this was the price for that servitude.  
  
It had nothing to do with the fact that he was afraid of death. He was not afraid of death. Only once had he been afraid. Only once had he ever felt a second of what would be construed as fear. But this situation was something completely different to being killed by Whitman.  
  
Even if the fairy was blond, she didn't look like Whitman in the face, she didn't have the same disturbingly blue eyes but when the fairy's back was turned he could almost imagine that it was the blond mistake.  
  
Whitman, like so many things around him in his life had been a mistake. And one that had been fatal for him. He often wondered that why of the three agents in his agency that she had chosen to kill him. 'Kill' was the closest world he could find to describe what she had done to him.  
  
Technically, it was more of being offline for a time while his code was being repaired and rebooted.  
  
'Killed' it seemed was just a more efficient way of putting it. In that split second of fear he had experienced he thought that his code might be damaged beyond the chance to choose deletion.  
  
He was sure that before his deletion that he would get a comment or suchlike his decades of service. He was proud of what he did and a little appreciation wouldn't be out of place.  
  
Pixel opened a small black bag and pulled out some bandages. "These were expensive," she muttered. "you are going to pay me back for them. I might get a good pay check but that doesn't mean I like wasting money."  
  
"Do you ever shut up?" he asked with a frown.  
  
"No, not really. That's what I'm like. I think that's what most fairies are like." She pulled out some cloths and a bottle of water. She soaked the cloths and held them up. "This may sting a little."  
  
"I'm not afraid of pain."  
  
"Just because you aren't," she said as she started to wipe off the excess blood so that she could see how big the actual wounds were, "doesn't mean you don't feel it." He winced as she touched on one of the deeper cuts.  
  
"I can feel it," he said as she continued. "Usually only minimally that is. But I can feel it more now because of this firewall."  
  
"Agent Brown did you just say something civil to me?" The agent didn't answer and she finished cleaning him off. Then she unravelled the bandages and helped him to sit up. He cooperated for the sake of his own existence.  
  
He allowed her to wrap them all the way around his body to ensure that they stayed there. Then she noticed something on one of his broad shoulders. "You've got a scar there."  
  
"It was such a small wound that I did not bother to get it repaired. I do not go running for every injury that I receive."  
  
"I assume it was an exile who did this?"  
  
"Of course it was. The rebels do not have such sophisticated weapons as to harm code."  
  
"Then which exile was it?" she asked as she made him drink some of the water.  
  
"I don't need to tell you that."  
  
"I am trying to have a civilised conversation with you, Agent, and that's not exactly an easy thing to do. So if you don't want me to pull all these bandages off and leave you to die then I would suggest that you make an effort to be nice to me!"  
  
"I'm not nice to anyone," he said but for once there was no spite behind his words.  
  
"See?" Pixel said with a grin, "was that so hard?"  
  
"I have no idea what you are talking about."  
  
"Sure you do," she said as she helped him to lie back. "Now I think you need some rest before we attempt to get you back home."  
  
"You do realize," Brown started, "that once we are out of these firewalls that I am going to attempt to kill you."  
  
"If you have the strength then you are certainly welcome to try but I think you'll be having enough trouble walking by that point."  
  
"You can't make assumptions like that."  
  
"Sure I can," she remarked with confidence. "I've seen enough damaged programs to know how their injuries are going to affect them." She considered what she had just said. She didn't know that many programs, only the ones in Mero's world and the two she knew most about were the Twins and they didn't get hurt as a rule.  
  
That meant that what she had just said was coming from her memory. She stood up and closed her eyes, trying to focus in on what she could remember. "Injured programs," she muttered to herself. "Lots of injured programs." She forced herself to remember something.  
  
"What are you saying?" Brown demanded as he looked up at her. "Are you talking to me or yourself?"  
  
"Shut up!" she yelled.  
  
She could hear a quiet voice, not what he or she – though she 'knew' it was a he – was saying. It was just the impression of someone talking but the voice didn't seem unpleasant.  
  
He sounded...she couldn't think of a way to describe it. Familiar was probably the word she was looking for. And for some strange reason she kept an imagine in her mind that didn't make any sense. But then it was gone and she couldn't hear it any longer.  
  
"What was that all about?" Brown demanded from the floor.  
  
"Damn," she swore, she had almost remembered something. Maybe not where she came from but at the very least a clue to it. It was terrible not to know about you past. But, as most exiles had to be, Pixel was quite good at adapting to new situations.  
  
Adapting helped you to survive.  
  
Survive people like Brown.  
  
Who she was helping.  
  
Why was she helping him?  
  
"Well?" he asked in a louder voice in case she had suddenly developed a hearing problem. "Are you going to tell me or not?"  
  
"Not," she said with a nod. "Not until you tell me who gave you that scar," she added a moment later.  
  
"You have a childish attitude," he muttered and gingerly touched the bandages that were slowly seeping red again.  
  
"That's not a real answer," she said. "Are you going to tell me or not?"  
  
"It was a program known as Twin One. He used his weapon, a razor, to cut me before phasing to escape me." He looked across and saw a strange look on her face. "You said you wanted to know."  
  
"I know that."  
  
"Have you heard of these Twin programs? They have been a great annoyance to me as no way I have tried to kill them has worked."  
  
"Agent, I would say that it would be smart of you to stop this line of conversation."  
  
"So you have heard of them," he said in understanding. "Allow me to guess...you are one of the many who work for The Merovingian?"  
  
"He deals out the best paychecks in town."  
  
"I should have guessed that."  
  
"But you didn't until I gave you a clue. You must be running slow Brown."  
  
"Don't insult me fairy."  
  
"God, could you use my name even once?"  
  
"Why? Are you going to forget that too?"  
  
"How did you know?" she asked in a much quieter voice.  
  
He knitted his brown in confusion, "how did I know what?"  
  
"Oh! So you were just being stupid. I guess you don't know."  
  
"Don't know what?"  
  
"That I can't remember anything beyond a couple of months ago. I just woke up one morning with basically no memory whatsoever except for my name."  
  
"That is something I will have to append to your file."  
  
She looked at him in shock, "I have a file?  
  
"Yes," he said as if she were asking him a stupid question.  
  
"So what does it say about me?"  
  
"Known information, sightings, abilities, that kind of thing is standard for a file on an exile."  
  
"Mind reciting what you can remember of it?"  
  
"That," he said with a glint in his eye, "if I am not mistaken, which I never am, would be doing you a favor wouldn't it?"  
  
"Yes, but then we would be even."  
  
"I don't owe you anything."  
  
"You do, even if you don't want to admit it."  
  
"Fine," he said, relenting. "I doubt whether you would have shut up if I hadn't have told you."  
  
"Yay!" Pixel said, "Exile 1, Agent 0."  
  
"I suspected you were going to say something like that."  
  
"Well?"  
  
"It says that you were the program of silver jewelry. You went exile twenty- eight years ago. All the sighting previous to my own were on the west coast of this country."  
  
"So maybe that's why LA seemed so much like home."  
  
"It would seem that you have been almost solely operating out of an around Los Angeles."  
  
"What else does it say?"  
  
"Prior to my own observations the only power that was on you record was your wings and therefore your flight ability." He paused for a second, "it would appear that another exile has altered your coding."  
  
"Thank you," she said genuinely. No matter how much he had begrudged giving her the information she now knew it and therefore had more clues as to her past. She waited a minute and then gave him a strange look. "Well aren't you going to say 'you're welcome'?"  
  
"I have never said that in my life and do not intend to start now."  
  
"Say what?" she asked with playful smile.  
  
"You're welcome," he clarified.  
  
"You just said it then," she said with a fit of laughter that would suit some kind of demented chibi. He growled at her then stopped short, out of breath. "Ok Mr. Agent man, all jokes aside you need some rest."  
  
"I have been here for too long already. If I am going any longer they may suspect that I am becoming a traitor and delete me."  
  
"Would that be so bad?" she asked him quietly. "You'd be an exile."  
  
"Would be that so bad?" he echoed. "It would be the worst thing I can imagine. I would die if I were an exile. They are everything that I stand against. Especially ones like Carlson. And, besides, when my time does come I am choosing deletion rater than exile."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I think you know by now."  
  
"Being a system program is only the start of existence. There is so much more to life after it."  
  
"You are entitled to my opinion, even if I don't and never will agree to it."  
  
"You sure do have a big stick up your ass." She smiled, "now go to sleep." With hesitation he closed his eyes and went to sleep.  
  
"And just who the hell is Carlson?" Pixel asked herself as the agent slept.  
  
Maybe Mero had been right when he had said that her code was corrupted. There was no good reason that she should be helping an agent. No good reason at all. But, for whatever reason this was the path that she had chosen.  
  
"Is he dead?" a voice asked from the doorway. Pixel snapped her eyes up and saw Stef standing there.  
  
"No," Pixel said and stood, "and it wasn't me who did this to him."  
  
"Damn," the other agent said quietly. "So did you just find him like this?"  
  
"No, this cat exile cut him up pretty bad so I fixed him."  
  
"You what?" Stef practically shrieked. "But you're an exile."  
  
"So?"  
  
"Forgive me, but that's Brown..." Stef groaned. "This is giving me a headache. So you're saying that he asked you for help?"  
  
"Not at first, I had to convince him that he needed my help and then he waited until he was practically on Charlie's doorstep..." Pixel clamped her hand on her mouth and gave the young agent a strange look. She didn't want to tell the agent anything about the exiles that she didn't know.  
  
"I know who Charlie is," Stef said with a sigh. "He gave me a key to the backdoors which I also know about. I also know that Club Hel is about three blocks away and that this whole area is covered in Mero's firewalls. And on top of that I can even manage pleasant conversation with the Oracle so you really don't have to hide anything."  
  
"That's both a complete shock and a huge relief."  
  
"Yeah, it's kind of like that."  
  
"So do you want to take him back?"  
  
"Me? Help an injured and pissed off Brown? I'd almost rather take my chances with Carlson."  
  
"That's the second person I've heard mention that name, now could you kindly tell me who the hell he is?"  
  
"Oh come on, you work for Mero and you don't know?"  
  
"No. I don't. Come on, you can tell me can't you?"  
  
"Brown's evil twin brother I guess you'd call him. He was an agent made out the same basic coding as Brown. Long story short - Carlson started the rebellion and now works for Mero."  
  
"Great..." Pixel said sarcastically.  
  
"I'm going to get out of here before he wakes up. He sees me talking to you and he'll get me deleted in a second. Not that I'd mind being an exile but I like being an agent."  
  
"Being a system program is fine while it lasts," Pixel commented, more to herself than to Stef.  
  
"Wait," Stef said aloud to herself as she was walking out of the door. She reached into her suit and threw Pixel a CD in a black case. "Hum told me about your memory problem so that's a copy of your file. Hopefully it'll help."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"No problem," Stef said as she left.  
  
It was another hour and a half before Brown woke up. "You ready to try walking?" Pix asked him with a smile.  
  
"Yes," Brown said and tried to stand. Being woozy from blood loss he couldn't make it on his own. She grabbed his right arm and hauled him to his feet. "I hate being helped," he said harshly.  
  
"Do shut up," Pixel said, echoing his earlier words.  
  
Half-allowing her to help for he was too weal to have a choice in the matter she helped him back out to the alley. It was getting on night so she hoped that none of the patrons from Club Hel drifted this way or they would be in serious trouble.  
  
They walked a couple of blocks in relative silence until they were out of the maze of alleys and away from the firewalls. "I can shift now," he said and she let him go.  
  
"So...are you going to kill me now?"  
  
He required a gun and looked from it to her and to his bandages, "next time." Pixel smirked and waved to him as he shifted away.  
  
Brown shifted to Jones' office, he was too injured to be able to heal himself so he would have to get Jones to do it for him. No matter how he disapproved of the lesser agent, the technical agent was good at what he did.  
  
He leant heavily against the wall and went to twist the knob but stopped himself. He hated being interrupted without warning so it was safe to assume the same of Jones. He then did something that he hadn't done since the days before the other agent's corruption.  
  
He knocked on the door to Jones' office.  
  
*****  
  
One week later.  
  
When Pixel walked through to the backdoor hallway the last thing she expected to see was Vorateu standing next to Persephone. Thinking that he was trying to harm her, she drew her sword and ran at him with an angry yell.  
  
Her sword caught the bright hallway light. The vampire bared his fangs and prepared to fight her off. She was careful to avoid looking into his yes, she wasn't going to fall for that trick again.  
  
She swung her sword in a wide arc, unfortunately it was too wide and with a simple step he avoided it. He gripped her right hand that was holding the sword and dug his fingernails in, causing blood to run down her hand.  
  
She gritted her teeth as the blood ran down her wrist. He forced her to drop the sword and wrapped his other hand around her throat and lifted her off the ground. "This time," he whispered in his richly accented voice. "I am going to vait until you die before I suck you dry."  
  
But...Pixel thought, that usually kills vampires.  
  
He read the thought easily and then he laughed, "that's only in movies, fairy." Pixel grimaced as small dots appeared in front of her eyes.  
  
"Run Perse..." she managed to utter, not wanting her death to be for nothing, which it would be if Perse didn't get away.  
  
"That's enough Vorateu," Perse's voice said and immediately the vampire let her go.  
  
"As you wish, my love."  
  
Pixel slumped against the wall and massaged her throat, trying to get used to the idea of breathing again. Perse clapped her hands and made Pixel look up. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I was going out, what are you doing mistress?"  
  
"Deciding whether or not I should let him finish."  
  
"I saved your life."  
  
"He wasn't going to hurt me."  
  
"What about the agent? You owe me for that." She saw something flicker in Perse's eyes. "This is why you hate me, you two know each other and you're pissed at me cause I was hired to kill him."  
  
"Something to that nature."  
  
"I was doing my job. What's the deal anyway?"  
  
"I need to first know if I can trust you or not."  
  
"Will he kill me?"  
  
"If I decide that I can't trust you, or if you break my trust." Vorateu stood silently, waiting to see how it all played out.  
  
"I won't say anything if you don't want me to, but I would like to know what's going on."  
  
"All right," Perse said after a few moments of thought. "I shall trust you for the moment."  
  
"Good."  
  
Vorateu nodded, "I guess that this means ve von't be trying to kill each other anymore."  
  
"I guess so."  
  
He nodded at Perse before wrapping his cloak about him and disappearing.  
  
"So...?" Pixel asked with a questioning look at Perse.  
  
"He and I are from the same world, he was reminding me of that. He was reminding me of what it like to truly be alive."  
  
Pixel winced, "I guess this means I won't get my twenty million dollars!"  
  
The End. 


End file.
